ABSTRACT
This study concludes that multinational corporations, after more than fifteen years of operations with tax exemptions and incentives, have transferred a very limited amount of technology into Guadalajara. The study detected that only four kinds of technology were transferred and four other kinds were diffused. This is true in spite of the fact that three of the six informal mechanisms of technology transfer were found to be active at the time when the empirical research was conducted. The analysis of the level of the technologies transferred and diffused indicates that most of this technology is concentrated in the absorption of operative capabilities. In addition, the displacement of 71% of the indigenous electronics and computing firms established in the region by the end of the 1980’s, and 40% of those operating by the beginning of 1990’s, is a powerful indicator of the limited investment capability that has been provided to the region. Furthermore, the reduced number of indigenous suppliers trained from the packing, carton and printing industries, and the correspondingly disappointing 15% of value added to exports in 1998 is a public indictment of the electronics industry’s low level of integration in the national economy.
